The West Bengal government on Thursday began verifying the eligibility of beneficiaries under the public distribution system based on the outcome of the special intensive revision of the state’s electoral rolls.

The food and supplies department said that it would mark as inactive the ration cards of persons deleted from the voter list.

This means that beneficiaries who were marked as absent, shifted, duplicate or dead in the draft list published in December would become ineligible under the public distribution system. Those who were removed from electoral rolls in the subsequent supplementary lists would also become ineligible.

Unmapped voters identified during the revision exercise who were excluded after the hearing process and persons removed from the electoral roll after adjudication will also be ineligible under the public distribution system.

However, persons who have filed appeals before the appellate tribunals or submitted their applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act will continue to receive the benefits until the process concludes, the department said in an order.

The verification exercise will conclude by June 15, it said.

On May 27, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said that about 30 lakh beneficiaries of a cash transfer scheme for women would also become ineligible for it after being removed from the voter list.

The same day, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission, saying that the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.

However, the court said that the poll panel’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.

“Such an inquiry does not amount to a determination of citizenship in the strict sense and any action taken pursuant thereto is confined to electoral consequences alone,” Chief Justice Surya Kant had said.

By April 6, about 91 lakh voters, nearly 11.9% of the electorate before the process began, had been removed from the electoral rolls.

Ahead of the Assembly elections in April, about 34 lakh appeals were reportedly pending before the tribunals. Of these, seven lakh were against names being included in the rolls and 27 lakh were filed by persons who were excluded. Appellate tribunals set up as part of the special intensive revision process had allowed 1,607 names to be added back to the electoral rolls.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.